Monday, April 13, 2015

Dream Come True: Former Student Starts Magazine in Oregon

Sometimes all you need is a good foundation and discovering where your niche is.

Former Vol State student Holly Feral found that foundation while at Vol State, and she's now putting her skills to use with a special publication of her own creation in Portland, Ore.

Driftwood is a quarterly travel and culture magazine exploring the vegan lifestyle around the world. The magazine recently completed its $25,000 Kickstarter campaign, raising nearly $28,000 to see the the project through. The first issue is expected to be released in July.

Feral, who eventually moved to the Pacific Northwest following her time at Vol State, saw a need for a magazine that celebrates and explores the vegan communities of the world, so Driftwood was born.

"Most vegan publications are really targeted at people who are not vegan. They're really targeted towards people who are thinking about becoming vegan, so they're more focused on convincing you to be vegan. There really aren't a lot of magazines focused on people who are already living the lifestyle," Feral said.

While at Vol State from 2003 to 2006, Feral studied journalism. She had her hand in all three of the college's student publications. She wrote for The Settler, was editor-in-chief of The Pioneer, and headed up the resurrection of Squatters' Rites. Those experiences editing the magazines and writing for the paper helped Feral get a strong handle on the skills needed to see publications through to the end product.

"I really enjoyed being able to find other really talented people and figure out what they were really talented at and help them shine," she said.

Those important skills learned at Vol State helped her get where she is now as editor-in-chief of Driftwood, which she called a dream come true.

"My dream in life has always been to write a publication, to travel, and to use my storytelling to bring people together. It was a really exciting time at Vol State, and it really made me value all of the fundamentals of journalism and the excitement of journalism. Vol State was integral to my development," she said.